Mike McCormack, president of the Toronto Police Association (L) and Mayor John Tory. (Toronto Sun files)

A handgun ban would fail to stop Toronto’s violence and murders, the head of the Toronto Police Association insisted on the heels of three weekend homicides in Toronto.

Mike McCormack said a ban would divert resources at a time when Toronto requires an investment in police and social services.

“I would support anything that would have an impact, but a ban wouldn’t get to the core of the issue. A municipal government banning handguns will have zero impact,” McCormack added Monday.

Mayor John Tory countered while “there is no magic answer” to the murders and gun violence, a handgun ban will help deal with the problem.

“I don’t know why anyone would need a handgun in Toronto. If we can take one gun out of one hand, we can save one life,” Tory said, adding along with the ban there needs to be changes to the laws and stricter bail conditions.

“We need to move support for police, change laws and invest in kids and families. It’s troubling, but we can’t just snap our fingers and make it go away. We have done a lot of things … We have to keep at it.”

But McCormack cautioned a ban would require an overhaul of the criminal justice system that would take years.

“What we need is to get officers on the streets to get the intel we need. We need to look at the demographics of where the problems are coming from to get away from this gang culture,” McCormack said.

“In short, there needs to be a rigorous increase in policing to target youth. To get them out of the culture you have to offer them an alternative. We need a huge police commitment and an intel commitment to stop the bloodshed. We have to get the message out that you won’t get away with carrying a handgun in this city.”

This is a pseudo-controversy, very much like a pseudo-event, which is an event created for the media coverage it will get This controversy has been created to keep the real question out of the newspapers. No serious legal changes are being considered.

This is a pseudo-controversy, very much like a pseudo-event, which is an event created for the media coverage it will get This controversy has been created to keep the real question out of the newspapers. No serious legal changes are being considered.

The real question? What was the shooter's motive?

true the motive plays a big role in understanding why the tragedy occurred

the point is Mayor John Tory , Toronto city council and the media are all saying the event could of been prevented in hand guns were banned in Toronto

except based on what we know the shooter was not a legally licensed gun owner , nor was his brother from who he got the gun . the gun itself was not legal in Canada although ay have been stolen in Saskatoon at some point

but as the head of the Toronto police union points out there is little reason to believe a shooter determined to kill people would of been stopped by a municipal law banning hand guns in toronto city limits , if you've mentally decided your going to commit a murder in cold blood you don't care if the weapon being used in legal or not

the media and anti gun progressives in Canada aren't being honest with people about the true realities we face when it comes to gun crime .

even if they ban the legal guns ( from target shooters and collectors who are extremely low risk to commit a crime and already passed rcmp background checks ) ,

there is little reason to believe the criminal element is going to disappear or not be able to find a new source of guns . likely smuggled from the US across the border

we've also seen this before in Canada , back in the mid 90's the liberals and Canadian media sold Canadians on the idea that all we needed was a new gun law and crime / shootings would be greatly reduced ( there plan at the time was to bring in a new licensing system and gun registry for long guns even though hand guns were already registered )

and the liberals were rewarded with a majority government in the 97 election mostly because of urban voters in Ontario and quebec

except there new gun bill was a disastrous failure , not just because it was such a waste of time and money . at its core it failed to reduce crime especially in the major cities , shooting continued to occur in places like Toronto on a regular basis . I wouldn't even want to think how many people have been killed by a gun in Toronto going back to the mid 90's when the liberals first promised to put an end to the problem

clearly they can't be trusted on guns and crime , they have no clue how to solve this problem and everything that they've ever tried has been a dismal failure . laws that target hunters and target shooters with new restrictions . but criminals could care less and they continue to break the laws regardless

there is absolutely no reason to believe anything the liberals plan to do about guns will do anything to reduce crime in Canada

I understand that gun control is one of your issues. I support your position, but this is being drawn out in the media to keep the relevant discussion out.

John Tory knows that a gun ban is a red herring. All the other main participants have more information that we have. They not only all know what we want to find out, but htey are united in not discussing it, and then stigmatizing anybody who is persistent.
They may not know everything, but they know more than they're telling.

Why do they refuse to reveal any information, beyond the perp's name, which they delayed on? And how could they refuse to reveal a name? Despite the wide public interest, the media show no desire to follow up on the case.

It's as close to a news blackout as you can get under the circumstances. Why, if there is nothing to hide?

They have effectively stifled public curiosity under the pseudo-controversy of a phoney gun ban.

The reason this gets irritating is not that Torontonians are going to start packing guns, but that the shooter may have been a jihadi. They will lose trust in their police and courts. (If they knew more, they'd be alarmed now.) And that's because they collaborate to keep items that are hostile to their approved 'narratives' out of sight. We all know it. The race of the perp isn't mentioned unless he's white -- which teaches people, over decades, that if they don't mention 'race' in the description, he's not white. And so it goes with Moslems.

In this environment, their silence can be a statement.

The statement is this: We, the superior people, will decide what you can and can't call a fact because you are all racist homophobes. You might come to a conclusion that the civil servants don't like.

(Did I mention that civil servants are hired according to racist and sexist preferences?)

There will come a time when the public's distrust of the police, courts, and politicians will become a public fact. I don't say we're there yet, but the day is coming.

I understand that gun control is one of your issues. I support your position, but this is being drawn out in the media to keep the relevant discussion out.

John Tory knows that a gun ban is a red herring. All the other main participants have more information that we have. They not only all know what we want to find out, but htey are united in not discussing it, and then stigmatizing anybody who is persistent.
They may not know everything, but they know more than they're telling.

Why do they refuse to reveal any information, beyond the perp's name, which they delayed on? And how could they refuse to reveal a name? Despite the wide public interest, the media show no desire to follow up on the case.

It's as close to a news blackout as you can get under the circumstances. Why, if there is nothing to hide?

They have effectively stifled public curiosity under the pseudo-controversy of a phoney gun ban.

The reason this gets irritating is not that Torontonians are going to start packing guns, but that the shooter may have been a jihadi. They will lose trust in their police and courts. (If they knew more, they'd be alarmed now.) And that's because they collaborate to keep items that are hostile to their approved 'narratives' out of sight. We all know it. The race of the perp isn't mentioned unless he's white -- which teaches people, over decades, that if they don't mention 'race' in the description, he's not white. And so it goes with Moslems.

In this environment, their silence can be a statement.

The statement is this: We, the superior people, will decide what you can and can't call a fact because you are all racist homophobes. You might come to a conclusion that the civil servants don't like.

(Did I mention that civil servants are hired according to racist and sexist preferences?)

There will come a time when the public's distrust of the police, courts, and politicians will become a public fact. I don't say we're there yet, but the day is coming.

but the Danforth shooting isn't the only one the media doesn't want to talk about the motive

the media is all over the shooting this weekend at a park in downtown Toronto , mentioned how the victim was a father and killed in front of his wife and kids , truly a tragic scene

but the BBQ was a memorial to a previous victim of gun violence , had the victim avenged his friends death when he was younger and in his 20's ? we know street justice is rather common in Toronto . perhaps that's why he was targeted at this event or someone else had avenged the earlier victims death .

either way it would seem to be a possible motive for the shooting , that there had been some street justice to avenge the earlier victim and that's why this event was targeted

but I agree the media loves to showcase shootings and gun violence in Toronto but does not want to discuss the reasons or true motives for the shootings

( newly released stats from the Toronto police are highlighted in a global news article , the stats clearly indicate there has been no surge in domestically sourced guns . in fact the police are unable to determine the origins of most of the firearms seized in the city . most are also "prohibited " meaning legal Canadian gun owners couldn't own one now and effectively already banned here .

so essentially the earlier claims made by the media and police are a lie and not based on facts . the stats also indicate a hand gun ban would have little impact as most of the guns are coming from the states and unlikely to have came from legal gun owners in Toronto . )

September 6, 2018 12:47 pm Updated: September 6, 2018 12:50 pm

COMMENTARY: Data shows Toronto’s gun ‘surge’ never happened

640 Toronto
By Matt Gurney
Radio Host Global News

The number of Toronto crime guns traced directly back to licensed Canadian owners is much fewer than those traced back to the U.S. — and is also trending down over time.

Earlier this summer — a summer that has seen Toronto wracked by gun violence — a report came out that suggested lawful Canadian gun owners were to blame for at least some of the violence. The article was originally published by the Canadian Press, and was widely republished elsewhere, including at the CBC, the National Post, a dozen local newspapers, CTV News, and, yes, here at Global News. Since then, it has been widely cited in other news stories covering the issue, including in The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. The report was everywhere.

Here’s the problem. Newly released stats show clearly that it was wrong.

The article was based around an interview with a Toronto Police Services detective, Rob Di Danieli. Det. Di Danieli told the Canadian Press that Canadians who were lawfully licensed to purchase and possess firearms were increasingly a public safety issue. “They go get their licence for the purpose of becoming a firearms trafficker,” Di Danieli told the CP. “A lot of people are so ready to blame the big bad Americans, but we had our own little problem here.”

The CP article hangs on this revelation from the detective. It notes, in various places, “The number of guns obtained legally in Canada but are then sold to people who use them for criminal purposes has surged dramatically in recent years compared to firearms smuggled from the United States, Toronto police say,” and, “In recent years [investigators say they] have noticed a stark shift in where guns used to commit crimes are coming from,” and, “Legal Canadian gun owners are selling their weapons illegally, Di Danieli said, noting that police have seen more than 40 such cases in recent years.”

This article absolutely informed the debate unfolding in Canada (and specifically in Toronto) right now. I can speak to that directly: while discussing the issue of handguns in Canada these last few weeks, on my radio program, online and in columns, the article has been repeatedly sent to me as a form of rebuttal: “See, Gurney, see! Lawful Canadian gun owners ARE the problem! Read this article and weep!”

But the article didn’t cite any statistics to back up its main assertion: that criminals in Toronto are being provided firearms by licenced owners in increasing — “surging” — numbers.

At the time the CP story first ran, there were no publicly available stats to support (or contradict) what di Danieli had told them. But now, those numbers are publicly available, thanks to Dennis R. Young, an Alberta-based researcher who filed a Freedom of Information request with the Toronto police and published their reply on his website. And these stats tell a very different story.

COMMENTARY: A fair gun control debate requires accurate firearm facts

In short, there is no surge in crime guns that can be traced back to licensed Canadian gun owners. None. It’s just not there. The Toronto Police Service’s own statistics show no such surge. For instance, see this chart below. It tracks the number of “crime guns” that can be sourced either to Canada or the United States. The CP article asserts that there’s been a surge of Canadian-sourced guns since 2012. But these numbers go back as far as 2007. Look for yourself. Where’s the surge?

Below: Data shows the number of ‘crime guns’ seized by Toronto police based that can be traced back to Canada and the U.S.

There’s no surge in guns traced back to Canada. There’s an ebb and flow across the years, but no “surge” post-2012. In fact, if you look carefully, you’ll see that while the number of guns sourced from Canada bounces up and down a bit, the overall trend is down.

But let’s be even more specific. The Toronto Police definition of a “domestically sourced” crime gun is broader than the definition of a crime gun that’s specifically traced back to a lawfully licensed gun owner — the people discussed in the CP article. But the number of guns traced directly back to licensed individuals is also available in the Toronto Police stats. Please see below for that comparison: crime guns traced back to the U.S. vs. traced directly back to lawful Canadian owners.

BELOW: Data comparing the number of crime guns seized by Toronto police that can be traced back to the U.S. or to lawful Canadian gun owners.

Once again, you’ll see some variation year by year, but the number of Toronto crime guns traced directly back to licensed Canadian owners is much fewer than those traced back to the U.S. — and is also trending down over time. There is no “surge” post-2012. The number actually dropped sharply in 2013, and then returned to a more typical level — which is still well down from 10 years ago. In fact, each of the last five years would rank in the lowest five years for Toronto police tracing guns back to lawfully licensed Canadians. All of them are below the 2012 figure, which itself was below 2011’s.

Indeed, even if we use the more expansive definition of “domestically sourced,” every single year post-2012 shows fewer crime guns seized in Toronto than in 2012 itself.

Surge? What surge?

There are broader issues here, as well. The vast majority of guns are never traced back to any particular origin. Take 2017, for instance. Of the more than 1,700 firearms seized by Toronto police that year, only 330 guns could be linked to either Canada or the United States. It’s been even more stark in other years, as the chart below shows:

ABOVE: The total number of firearms seized by Toronto police is much higher than the number of those guns that can be traced back to either Canada or the U.S.

See those lines smooshed way down there on the bottom? Those are the guns that are actually traced to Canada or the U.S. We’re arguing over rounding errors. But even so, you’ll note no radical shifts or surges anywhere, let alone after 2012.

And there’s another revealing insight in the numbers released by the Toronto police: roughly half of the crime guns seized by Toronto police in 2017 were classified under Canadian law as “prohibited,” meaning they are virtually banned and only rarely possessed by any Canadian civilian (the only real exceptions are Canadians who owned said firearms before the current gun control classification system was introduced in the 1990s). Any kind of further crackdown on gun ownership in Canada would have extraordinarily limited impact on these guns, which, again, were half the crime guns seized in Toronto in 2017 (I haven’t crunched the numbers for each year going back to 2007, but prohibited guns are a major portion of the total in every year). These guns are effectively banned already. Is that not evidence that the debate about banning guns is missing the mark?

Both the Canadian Press and the Toronto Police were contacted about these matters before this column ran. In an email, an editor at the Canadian Press said they were looking into the matter but had no further comment at that time. An officer with the communications department of the Toronto Police said that my request to speak with Det. di Danieli would be passed along; but as of 24 hours later, there has been no reply beyond confirming receipt of my messages. This is unfortunate. Without comment, I can’t begin to explain how the public narrative that was established was so wildly off what the statistics actually show. I choose not to speculate. But an explanation would certainly come in handy. If any arrives, I will update you.

In the meantime, the debate will continue, of course. There’s no doubt about that. But it has to be an informed debate. I’ve said it before, and I have a grim feeling I’ll say it again, but gun control is an important public policy issue, and Canadians were woefully ignorant of it, in large part because these issues are not effectively reported on. This CP article’s central claim has been at the centre of our gun control debate this summer, and has been cited as a secondary source … I don’t even know how many times.

But the article’s central claim, of a surge in domestic crime guns, is bad. Inaccurate. Wrong. And that bad, inaccurate and wrong information is now at the core of an important and contentious public policy debate.

Politicians, including the Prime Minister and Toronto mayor John Tory, who once strongly opposed a ban on handguns, are now either considering or actively calling for one. This would be a major change to the Criminal Code involving potentially billions of dollars in private property. It is not an exaggeration to say the CP report is a key part of this debate.

Do our political leaders know they’re reacting to a story with bad information? Perhaps the more depressing question is whether they’d care if they did.

This is an official spokesman for the Toronto police representing lies as solid fact-based information to the media, further certified and reviewed by an authority. And it was all bunk.

Why wouldn't they lie about jihadis?

Why would anyone take them at their word?

the release of these new stats , raise a lot of questions

why was the claim of domestically sourced guns surging allowed to be front and centre in media reports without any evidence to back up the claims ? why did no one in the Toronto police service step up with actual evidence to either back up the claims or show people the real numbers so they could judge for themselves if there was a problem ?

I've already said there is no reason to believe anything the liberals say about guns , they said back in the 90's a long gun registry was going to stop crime and help solve existing cases . it never really did much of anything then was scraped

there is no reason to believe there new claims that a hand gun ban is going to reduce crime in Toronto . the head of the Toronto police union has already said it won't do anything . the stats indicate most of the guns seized by the police in Toronto are already illegal in Canada ( essentially already banned ) and these guns have to becoming from the US , what would a ban on low calibre mostly sporting or target shooting pistols do to solve crime ? clearly nothing at all

if nothing else the release of these stats will stir up some debate and maybe the anti gun crowd will come to there senses and realise how dumb of an idea a hand gun ban is

( this is an interesting article posted on the CBC in august , it talks about how there is no stats that actually keep track of the origins of so called crime guns . no way of knowing if they are in fact domestically sourced or from the US . although people like Ralph goodale and some police like to talk about the idea of domestically sourced guns , they don't have any actual facts to back up these claims )

Canada can't say where its crime guns are coming from

Governments, police not collecting national statistics on whether guns are smuggled or sourced domestically

There's a lack of consistent data on the origin of guns used in crime in Canada - and no national effort to collect accurate numbers. (Robert Short/CBC)

1216 comments

"It is a fact that the majority of gun-related crimes in our communities are committed with guns that are domestically-sourced," RCMP Inspector Chris McBryan told the Vancouver Sun two years ago.

Insp. McBryan was speaking as head of the Western Canada division of the National Weapons Enforcement Support Team (NWEST) of the Canadian Firearms Program (CFP).

But when CBC News contacted the CFP and asked for the data behind his categorical statement, the RCMP replied that no such data exists.

"Inspector McBryan's statement would have been based on information available to him at that time; however, this information would not have provided a complete, national picture of the sources of crime guns, as no such data exists," says a statement from the RCMP.

"Currently, there is no national repository for this type of information in Canada. The Canadian Firearms Program does not collect or track national statistics with regard to the origin of crime guns," said Sgt. Marie Damian.

Lots of speculation, few facts

Conservative Larry Maguire may have thought his status as a member of Parliament could get him better answers, so he put his question about the national origin of seized guns on the order paper.

He received a detailed accounting of seizures from 2015 to 2017 broken down by year, by province, by firearms class and by registration status. But to his main question about whether the guns were sourced in Canada or smuggled from the U.S., he got this reply: "The Canadian Firearms Information System does not collect the requested information."

Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told a guns and gangs summit in Ottawa this year that more and more guns used in crimes in Canada were coming from within the country.

This statistic is from figures compiled by the Provincial Weapons Enforcement Unit of the Ontario Provincial Police. (CBC)

But at the same summit, Lynn Barr-Telford, director-general in charge of justice surveys at Statistics Canada, lamented the "gaps" in her department's data.

"We don't know the origin of firearms involved in gun crime in Canada," she said.

The need for better numbers

It's one of the few subjects on which gun owners and gun control advocates can agree: Canada needs better gun data.

"I remember working on training programs with the national weapons enforcement support team to actually communicate to police why it was important to trace firearms," said Wendy Cukier of the Coalition for Gun Control.

"You can imagine, police often are short-staffed and have limited resources. They're working on solving a murder investigation — focusing on tracing the source of the firearm may or may not be viewed as critical to prosecuting that particular crime.

"And so, typically, tracing firearms has not been a top priority of police agencies across the country."

Cukier said she believes there is convincing anecdotal evidence from police forces to support the idea that more crime guns are coming from within the country.

Former Mountie and gun-rights advocate Dennis Young disagrees with that conclusion — but he said he'd also like to see better tracking.

"Accurate statistics should be collected by the Canadian Firearms Centre, and they're not," he said. "And those statistics should be verified and reported by Statistics Canada, and they're not."

( in more hand gun related news , this article speaks with several liberal mp's from Toronto and area about the issue .

one now says banning hand guns is a patriotic Canadian issue and about how to keep Canada as we want it to be ? even though there has been a deep history of firearms ownership and use in Canada going back hundreds of years

another one says his constituents want hand guns off the streets and gone , ok legitimate concern but how does banning the legal mostly sporting and collectable hand guns get them out of the hands of criminals who are highly unlikely to participate in any new gun control measures ? the liberals have yet to explain how the 2 are even connected or why crime would go down if the criminals are still out there and causing trouble )

OTTAWA — Liberal backbenchers are pushing for action on gun violence and irregular border crossers as they prepare for the resumption of Parliament next week — and an election one year from now.

Banning handguns and assault weapons and faster processing of border crossers’ refugee claims are among the top recommendations Liberal MPs say they intend to raise with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his ministers in Saskatoon, where they’ll be gathering today at a caucus retreat to plot strategy for the fall parliamentary sitting.

But unlike last year — when backbenchers used the annual end-of-summer retreat to berate the government over proposed tax changes that had enraged small business owners — Liberal MPs now seem relatively content with the government’s performance as it heads into the countdown to the next federal election.

That’s despite a challenging summer for the Trudeau government, beset by a court ruling that toppled a central pillar of its climate change strategy and NAFTA negotiations that have dragged on without resolution, punctuated by repeated insults and threats to ruin Canada’s economy from U.S. President Donald Trump.

Toronto MP John McKay suspects Trump is responsible for the level of satisfaction he’s found among his constituents for Trudeau and his administration.

“I think everybody’s concluded that poor Trudeau is dealing with a lunatic and he’s just doing the best he can with what he’s got. Every time Trump tweets, Trudeau looks better,” says McKay, who’s found NAFTA negotiations are the top issue in his riding.

Caucus chair Francis Scarpaleggia says NAFTA negotiations have been “on everyone’s lips” in his Montreal riding as well. People recognize it’s “a difficult file,” but Scarpaleggia said he hasn’t heard any negative reaction to the government’s approach.

“I get positive vibes with respect to the way the prime minister is handling it, in terms of being diplomatic but at the same time standing up for Canadian interests.”

After months of sliding popularity, opinion polls suggest Liberal fortunes have rebounded somewhat over the summer, perhaps due in part to the internal travails of the two main opposition parties.

The Conservatives are coping with the scathing indictment of former leadership contender Maxime Bernier, who last month quit what he called the “morally and intellectually corrupt” Tories to start his own party. The NDP, meanwhile, has been struggling with dismal fundraising and polling numbers amid increasingly open discontent with Jagmeet Singh’s leadership.

At townhalls he’s held over the summer, Toronto Liberal MP Rob Oliphant said, “People tend to start out by saying they’re generally happy … and then, from the general happiness, they have things that we could do better, which feels like a good place to be in right now.”

Among the issues on which Oliphant said people want to see improvement are gun violence and the government’s management of the flow of asylum seekers entering the country at unofficial border crossings.
“People in Don Valley West … are concerned about handguns and want them off the streets,” said Oliphant, adding that a handgun ban is the “No. 1 issue” he’ll be taking into the caucus meetings.

City councils in Toronto and Montreal have passed motions calling for a ban on hand guns and assault weapons. Trudeau has said the government is considering the matter, along with other ways to beef up legislation that would impose stricter background checks on firearms buyers and new mandatory record-keeping practices for vendors.

The Conservatives are already trying to turn the legislation into a reprise of the pitched battle over the controversial long-gun registry, a Liberal creation that was ultimately scrapped by Stephen Harper’s government. McKay, for one, doesn’t relish a repeat of those kinds of “fun and games with the Conservatives,” but said his constituents are virtually unanimous about wanting to ban handguns.

“I don’t think I speak out of turn when I say that there is no tolerance for people having guns in Toronto, period — long guns, short guns, in-between guns, fast guns, slow guns,” he said.

Kim Rudd, who represents the largely rural Ontario riding of Northumberland-Peterborough South, said she’s received emails and calls on both sides of the issue, but the majority support a ban on handguns.

“No one wants our country to mirror the gun violence in the U.S.,” said Rudd. “It’s not just about whether it’s a rural town or an urban town — it’s about how we keep Canada as a country what we want it to be.”

While the government must take care to protect the legitimate rights of farmers, hunters and sport shooters, Rudd said, “Most people … question why anyone would need a handgun or need an assault rifle.”

Border crossing asylum seekers are also on backbenchers’ radar, although Scarpaleggia said concern about that issue seems to have faded over the course of the summer in his riding.

McKay, whose riding is one of the most heavily populated by immigrants, said those who came to Canada through regular channels are particularly upset about asylum seekers “coming through the back door.

“People have come to the conclusion that these people are not refugees and they should be returned, sooner rather than later,” he says.

“The only fair thing to everybody is to process them quickly, and I think that’s where the government’s weakness is.”

Some 30,000 asylum seekers have walked across the border at unauthorized crossings in the past two years. Only about 15 per cent of their refugee claims have been processed, with 47 per cent of those accepted. Only a tiny fraction of rejected claimants have been removed from the country.

Oliphant, who chairs the Commons immigration committee, said the government needs to balance a fair process with “expedited results,” where both the determination of refugee claims and deportations are done faster.

Syrian “Refugee” Charged With Murder Of 13 Year Old Burnaby GirlA man has been arrested and charged in the death of Burnaby teen Marrisa Shen.

Ibrahim Ali, 28, is charged with first-degree murder of Shen, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team said Monday.
The 13-year-old Burnaby girl was reported missing after she failed to return home by 11 p.m. on July 18, 2017. Police launched a search, using GPS to track her phone. Early on July 19, 2017, Shen’s body was found in Burnaby’s Central Park.

You notice how they skim over the motive? Why would a refugee, intent upon starting a new life in Canada, decide to murder a Chinese stjudent? And do it in such a way taht he was caught! Did he know her? Or was she selected at random, Danforth shooter style? And why would a religious Moslem do such a thing?

There are so many valid questions.

But the article does raise a good question -- was this immigrant sponsored, or is he one of Trudeau's 25,000? Wanna bet we don't get an answer on that one ... and we'll all know what that means, won't we. That's how we get the news in Canada.

( we heard a lot about the scarborough playground shooting earlier this year , just noticed this article about the intended victim . turns out he was a drug dealer in the area and carrying an illegal hand gun )

The items seized from a residence where Clinton McDonald was arrested by Toronto police on Friday. McDonald, 26, appeared in court on Saturday, where a bail hearing was put over until next week. (Toronto Police Service)

Police say they arrested the man who was the intended victim of a brazen daylight shooting at a Scarborough playground in June that left two young girls with gunshot wounds.

Clinton McDonald, 26, of Toronto, faces a slew of firearm and drug charges in connection with an investigation by the Toronto police Integrated Gun and Gang Task Force.

Toronto police spokesperson Katrina Arrogante said McDonald became the target of an investigation after police learned he might be in possession of an illegal firearm.

After executing a search warrant on his residence in the area of Eglinton East and McCowan Road, police found a 9 millimetre semi-automatic handgun, ammunition as well quantities of crack cocaine and heroin.

Arrogante said investigators believe McDonald was the intended target of the Scarborough playground shooting.

McDonald is facing 16 charges including unauthorized possession of a firearm, careless storage of a firearm, weapons trafficking, and drug possession for the purpose of trafficking

He is scheduled to appear in court at Old City Hall on Saturday, Sept. 1.

Three men arrested, one more wanted

Two girls, aged five and nine, were wounded after the gunman approached the small park, south of McCowan Road and Steeles Avenue E., on foot and fired seven shots before fleeing.

Police have since arrested two men in connection with the shooting.

Sheldon Eriya, 21, of Markham, was arrested a day after the shooting. He is accused of driving the vehicle that took the other two people to the east-end playground where the gunfire was unleashed.

Tarrick Rhoden, 23, of no fixed address, was arrested by the Ontario Provincial Police on Wednesday, August 22.

•After her daughters were shot in the playground, a mother calls for solutions to gun violence

During the two-month search, police said they believed the men were being helped by friends or acquaintances to evade arrest.

OPP officers charged a 59-year old man with accessory to commit an indictable offence.

A fourth man, T'Quan Robertson, is wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for several charges including attempted murder and assault. He is described as 5'8", 130 lbs, and is considered armed and dangerous by police.

Investigators are urging members of the public to not approach Robertson and to call 911 if they see him.

( another illegal hand gun was just seized in Ontario , this bust occurred outside the major cities in the tourist town of wasaga beach . but the theme is the same , people involved in the illegal drug trade , in possession of an illegal firearm and of course he was not legally licensed . he didn't walk into a store and buy a prohibited hand gun )

Police have charged two men after officers seized weapons and drugs in Wasaga Beach.

According to Huronia West OPP, on Wednesday just after 8:30 p.m., officers arrested two men at a business on Main Street in Wasaga Beach.

Police say one of the suspects was wanted in connection with a hit-and-run crash in Wasaga Beach dating back to June 18.

According to police, officers conducted a search and located a handgun, conducted an energy weapon, cash, cocaine, crack cocaine and paraphernalia associated with trafficking.

Police say two men are now facing several charges.

Officers say 19-year-old Jalen Pitt from Brampton has been charged with unauthorized possession of a prohibited or restricted firearm, carrying a concealed weapon and possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking – cocaine.

According to police, 19-year-old Jerome Pantlitz-Solomon of Mississauga has been charged with failure to comply with recognizance, possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking and failure to stop at the scene of an accident.

Licensed gunowner praised for joining cops in shootout with suspect near I-55A Cicero police officer was shot while doing an investigation in Chicago Thursday. Mitchell Armentrout/Sun-Times

A man with a concealed-carry license was commended for coming to the aid of Cicero police who were engaged in a shootout with a man who shot and wounded an officer near the Stevenson Expressway Thursday, authorities said.

Cicero Police Officer Luis Duarte, 31, was shot four times during the encounter near the 4200 block of South Cicero Avenue during the evening rush hour, but it might have been worse if the armed citizen hadn’t stepped in, officials said.

“We were lucky enough to have a citizen on the street there who’s a concealed-carry holder, and he also engaged in gunfire,” Cicero Police Supt. Jerry Chlada Jr. said outside Mount Sinai Hospital, where Duarte was undergoing surgery Thursday night.

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